Tribune goes live with 24/7 programmatic TV ad marketplace

The new service comes along after Tribune and WideOrbit had already been working together via WO Programmatic Open Marketplace on local spot advertising.

Tribune is using WideOrbit’s rule-based Auto-Acceptance feature to allowing for offers for ad time at all times of day and night. Tribune said its sales management will be able to use WideOrbit’s Auto-Accept feature to adjust pricing for sell-out levels and offer dynamic floor pricing, which is said is a first for linear TV.

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Dynamic floor pricing is designed to cut down on some of the inefficiencies with second-price auctions, where winning bidders pay one cent more than the second highest bid. In that scenario, there can often be large discrepancies between the highest and second-highest bid.

“We have to compete on audience programming value and ease of use to service advertisers,” said Kerry Oslund, vice president of strategy and business development at Tribune Broadcasting, in a statement. “Automating sales workflows with WO Programmatic allows us to take orders from ad buyers based on preset parameters anytime just like digital self-serve platforms.”

“Tribune’s embrace of an ‘always-open’ programmatic sales operation will make its local broadcast TV ad inventory as easy to purchase as any other media option,” said Eric Mathewson, founder and CEO at WideOrbit, in a statement. “We believe all broadcasters must streamline their transactional processes to be competitive with both digital and national media. We will continue to focus on software solutions that keep highly effective media like local TV as appealing to ad buyers as any competing media platform.”

Tribune will sell inventory from its channels and offer multicast advertising opportunities in WideOrbit’s Open Marketplace. In total, Open Marketplace said it offers access to ad inventory from more than 1,000 stations that reach nearly 95% of U.S. households.

For Tribune, the “always-on” sales approach for its TV ad inventory could provide a boost to its ad revenues.

During the company’s fourth quarter, television and entertainment advertising revenue fell 15% to about $326 million while net core advertising revenue rose 3% to about $297 million.